No, that's exactly the point. He's getting released.

I'd say that's maybe a 40% chance.

I'd say it's more likely they restructure his deal and he stays.

with his injury history and age, he's not going to get any huge deal on the open market. If he stays he's got a shot at a ring. I think Houston's made a ton of money, and would want that more than anything.

LMAO He's not quite 30 yet and is coming off a pretty good year. He'd get paid big on an open market with all the big name edge rushers likely getting an extension or tagged.

This is his best chance to get one last good payday.

My point about not being able to trade Dee Ford is the Chiefs won’t have the luxury of leverage. Teams will know he doesn’t fit a 4-3, and possibly decide to keep bidding low or wait for release.

I’m still laughing because people think we have personal for 4-3, hint.... We dont

Tied for 24th in sacks. Pretty good year? Not for how much he got paid.

Yup,

Why would he take a pay cut? Some 3-4 team will still pay him good money, plus he won’t have to play DE, a position he hasn’t played in over 7 years

A ring.

Lol if we lose Dee Ford (going to happen) and Houston in same offseason lol

Lol,

Wanna know where else he can get a ring?

It's not like he's going to get a max contract on the open market. He's 30, hasn't had a 10-sack season in five years, and is oft-injured.

I bet if the Chiefs offer him $10 million a year he takes it.

I think chances are good, but shit if they're going to swerve hard to the left well they might as well rip the band-aid off and do a rebuild properly.

Based on this year we don’t have the personnel for a 34 either

Let's not get crazy now.

How many snaps per game are they in their base front? Les than 20%?

LMAO Nah, there's a reason players have agents. This is more of an expectation from fans that players should do.

TO THE ****ING SHIP!!!!!!!!!!

Houston seems to like it in kc. I think they’ll keep him around but who knows

Yeah a decade ago when Brady would hold onto the ball more than 2 seconds

I don't have a problem with it if they do let him go.

I just don't think that's how it will shake out, but if so, that's fine.

For half that money, you can get a solid 4-3 end.

We also have two #2 picks that were shit OLB's as coverage guys but show some pass rush potential.

Let's see what shakes out.

Personnel Fits/Keys to the 4-3 Front

If you want to run a 4-3 front, what are the key positions to focus on? And what type of skill set are you looking for at those spots? Here are the four positions, starting with the "3-technique" defensive tackle, that I would point to first when building a front seven in the 4-3.

—"3-Technique" defensive tackle

Speed/quickness up the field with the ability to use technique/power at the point of attack to hold the gap. Think of the Bucs’ Gerald McCoy and the Bengals' Geno Atkins or look to this year’s draft class with Pittsburgh’s Aaron Donald and Florida State’s Timmy Jernigan.

—"Open-side" defensive end

The majority of NFL offenses are right handed in terms of formation and alignment, so I look to the open-side end (or right end) as a key factor in the 4-3 front.

You want size, length and true athletic ability on the edge of the defense that can hold the point, turn the corner versus an offensive tackle and play the cutback against the run game. That’s the Rams’ Robert Quinn or the Giants’ Jason Pierre-Paul with Jadeveon Clowney up next in this year’s draft class.

—Will ‘backer

In the 4-3, the Will ‘backer is going to pursue to the football, shoot backside gaps and clean up on cutback runs. He is the “playmaker” at the second level for defenses that run the 40 front. Again, think about athletic ability (versus both the run and the pass) with the Bucs’ Lavonte David or the Bears’ Lance Briggs as prime examples of the skill set you want at the Will 'backer position.

—Mike ‘backer

The Mike ‘backer has to showcase change of direction skills (hip transition), speed down the field in Cover 2 and also fill the hole as a downhill defender versus the one and two-back power-run game. That was Brian Urlacher in the past. And in today’s game, I look at the Panthers’ Luke Kuechly and the Cowboys’ Sean Lee.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...efensive-front

Sure,

So let’s take our strength and ruin it! Like I said we will preform about same as this year next but with less sacks.

There is NOTHING outside of Spags 3 years coaching a good defense that should inspire ANY of you with confidence. Add in the fact it will be a defensive rebuild year and you have your built in excuse.

You guys are hanging your hat on optimism that it won’t be worse because XYZ. Well Spag is the only guy available who has coached teams to worse.

My only hope is we cut Houston/trade-release ford and find a great FA DE (maybe Clowney) add a guy like David Irving on a short contract. And find secondary/MLB....

But that is a tall ****ing order to fill

You are reeeeeeeallly overstating the difficulty of this change.

So they are going to let go a guy who had 13 sacks and another who's had 9 back to back years lol no they arent knock it off with the awful takes

I think one of those 2 picks are going to be shit regardless of your alignment. The other could maybe translate over if he'll put the ****ing Wendy's bags down.

I would like to have Irving back. He’s a nutball apparently tho

I don’t see why they won’t have a good pass rush next year with Jones and one of Houston or ford plus a full offseason of acquisitions

We’ll see I guess

Lmao,

Yeah I get it you think it will make a difference, I’ll point out other teams who have in last 5 years moved from 3-4 to 4-3 taking 2-3 years to be good.

Someone else will come in and make the dumb comment that 4-3 DEs are easy to find. And how Hitches can somehow play MLB in a 4-3.

Then someone will come in and say DE is speak natural position so he for sure must be better. And Houston will be fine at DE.... etc etc

I get it,

But history says otherwise

Teams usually switch when they have regime changes and their talent is ass

The chiefs talent apparently isn’t ass.

Houston might end up at SLB

so probably going with a 4-3? That might help hitchens, hopefully anyways. Chris Jones will be a monster on the inside. But I'm not sure how Houston and Ford fits into that, maybe our 2nd round pick from a couple of years ago Tanoh Kpassagnon will finally be developed and fit in as a DE?? I'm not really sure about Speaks either. DoD might fit in well at linebacker in that scheme with his speed.

I don't really know, just thinking out loud pretty much.

Well I mean.....

Our
DE - good/decent
-NT was ass
- OLB good
- MLB Ass
- CBs assish
- Saftey Ass

Chargers did it in one year.

I'd flip Dee Ford for JPP, release Houston and use that extra money to target Jordan Hicks if he makes it to the open market.

Trade for a #1 corner, add another DE in the 2nd day of the draft and than we'll be cooking with some heat.

Yes, it's pretty easy to do with Joey Bosa.

I think it will help him. It's the system he came from. I could be wrong but I believe being in a 4-3 he will have less keys and checks on gaps and such.

Chargers had I believe the #6 defense this year playing a cover-3 zone almost exclusively. Problem is every time they faced a good QB like Mahomes or Brady, they got whacked pretty good. The Steelers slapped them around a bit as well.

But your point stands...

I'd keep Houston/Ford, try to sign Thomas 1 yr, draft a corner at the end of the first and an interior lineman in the 2nd

Hitchens is a WLB in a 4-3 I’m sure it will help him, but there is a reason Dallas let him go and now I know why

You don't think Nadi and Jones can play the N\DT position?

I mean we don't know anything right now but I would assume he will play the MLB with us. I'd rather have DoD and the WLB spot.....

If it were me, I'm drafting corners, safeties, and LB'ers.

Yeah, sorry just don’t really see your point in all this.

Does it really matter that they’re switching schemes when the defense was complete dog shit as is? Like are they going to get worse? I sure don’t see it.

I do but we have a plethora of picks it would be nice to have a rotation of lineman. The Eagles and Seahawks seem to do this.

Plus in some packages you could kick Jones outside to end, line up Ford at the other, kick Houston to OLB, Nadi & Rookie inside.

Agreed. If you can trade for a Peterson or Ramsey then you might be able to draft a CB later in the draft and focus on the S\LB spots. We don't know what we have in Watts but I think he will be a ball hawk. Lucas is still enough of a ? that you have to draft behind him and let him compete.

If we can't trade for an elite CB then yeah, I think you have to seriously consider going CB #1 and then see how you can work them in with Fuller, Nelson and Ward. It would be nice if you could put Fuller back at NCB but he has done a good job outside.

The scheme change isn’t even nearly as big of a factor nowadays anyways. As others have noted, teams are in nickel and dime packages mostly anyways.

It’s about how he will adjust, prepare, develop talent, and motivate them as a unit. That’s where the difference must be made.

You've got Nnadi and Williams for the 1 tech.
Jones is the only 3 tech, unless you sign Bailey back for that which I seriously doubt.

People are also forgetting the $ that will be freeing up or not getting tied up on the offensive side of the ball. Namely at this point Morse. He will not be retained. We have some younger guys on offense that can help $ wise cause we are going to need it for Hill\Kelce\Mahomes in the coming year or two.

Exactly. You really aren't in a "base" defense much anymore with all the 3 wide, 4 wide stuff. I think the biggest deal will be the situational calls. Going Cover 2 on 3rd & 10 vs. Blitzing, etc.

Also Sutton's defenses always lacked swagger. Need some nastiness ....

Speaks can play the 3 Tech too. It might even be ideal.

Hadn't really thought about Speaks in the 3 but yeah, that could be something you see, especially on passing downs. But I don't pull Jones on passing downs so......

You gonna play those guys all the snaps or rotate them? When you rotate them who you gonna have? Xavier William's? You can never have enough talent on the line especially when you've struggled against the run.

What? 1 Tech is 1 position with the rotation being Nnadi/Williams. Likewise with the 3 Tech rotation being Jones and Bailey/Speaks/???

Good post. It still matters, base defense; you're in it about a third of the time on league average. but all the variations of nickel are probably more important. Lots of different personnel groupings fall into that category.

The biggest thing is that The Chiefs have been incredibly fundamentally unsound. Stupid penalties, poor tackling-hell, even with the hairbrained scheme, if we were just better at the basics that defense would've been 20-ish. And I still say it had enough high picks on it to have been a middle of the pack defense talent-wise.

The secondary appeared to be a poorly coached mess. The front seven was not disciplined. As much as everyone loves Dee Ford's sack totals, he can be blocked by a ****ing WR on a running play. He was total shit at setting the edge. Inexcusable.

There are still pieces here to build with, there's still some talent, and the team is a solid and consistent situation for Spags. He's shown he can thrive in that sort of situation, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Well I won't disagree about talent on the line. That's why I was cool with drafting like we did last year. You could have all the Jaylen Ramsey's in the world but if your pass rush is non-existent you will not stop anyone. And if you can't stop the run, I don't care how great your secondary and pass rush are.....

We hear it every year on both sides of the ball...it all starts in the trenches

If we were a tad better against the run and get a corner that can slow down Edelman we beat the Pat's by 3 scores

All of these big contracts are either up, big paydays due, or it's the first year you could reasonably cut guys and absorb the cap hits.

We might well get ****ed on Berry, depending on this surgery business, although I have yet to see an official indication of the surgery.

Bailey's up, and was pricey. Sorensen was way overpaid but you can cut him June 1, Ford's gonna paid (but not by us, and we're going to get a decent pick) Houston's not going to get $21.1m. Looking at last year's draft and offseason, it literally looks like they were stacking up to make a change this offseason. I'm not saying they knew who the DC would be, but it would appear that they marked the spot in which a change could be done. Coupled with Andy's remarks about inside pressure being the key going forward. Get the new offense going with Mahomes in '18, flip the defense in '19.

Bad bad bad hire.

It'd be real funny if Speaks turned out to be Aaron Donald. ROFL

Did CP already write off 2019 as disastrous?

ROFL yeah right.

1/2 of CP. The same 1/2 that thought Geno Smith was our QBOTF

No I have wrote off our Defense as improving with hiring Rehash as the DC...

Its a stale zero impact hire that wont produce as we hoped..

Same as it ever was...

And the other half is the half that thought Alex was the QB that this franchise needed...

Who would you have rather had?

Complete nonsense that he doesn't fit a 4-3. There's little difference between a 4-3 under that Spags runs and the 3-4. The only person this is going to hurt is Ragland. Not Ford.

The only thing you should be laughing about is this garbage post you just put out there.

Do you think Ford never had to set an edge in the 3-4?

Good god ROFL

I don't know that ever actually DID set the edge.

You're Welcome!

What? Look around the NFL. What young defensive coordinators are lighting the world on fire? There aren't any. Wink Martindale = rehash, Gus Bradley = rehash, Jim Schwartz = rehash, Rod Marinelli/Kris Richard = rehash, Vic Fangio = rehash, George Edwards = rehash, Dennis Allen = rehash, Ken Norton = rehash, Wade Phillips = rehash, Gregg Williams = rehash.

Your football takes are pretty much atrocious.

Holy shit Spags had Turk McBride on his defense in 2012. No wonder it was terrible LMAO

Why do ppl think ford will have no trade value? There isn’t enough pass rushing talent to bid low and wait for his release. There’s 32 teams and possible 2 great pass rushers available. He can play in this defense but they should get return for him now rather than sign him long term, or have him play one year on the tag and walk for free.

Man thats a sad list... Good Grief bro...

He set the edge plenty of times. The notion that he just can't isn't true.

Is he great at it? Nope, but Sutton's run schemes were about as bad as there is.

Reetard doesn’t make football takes. He’s a trolling Broncos fan.

I wasn't overly enthused about this hire when it first came to light that he was the favourite. But now its all done, and after looking at his philosophy/record in more detail, I think I can get behind this appointment now. One thing that I find encouraging is firstly that he's coached at pretty much every level of the defense. DB's, Defensive line etc. So he'll know exactly what he wants from his defense In every area. He's also got a reputation of improving his players, something Sutton struggled with for the most part. I also like the fact that he's shown his brilliance on the biggest stage against what was deemed an unstoppable force when he stopped the Pats offense in the 2007 superbowl.

All we can do now is hope that this appointment can be looked back on in years to come as a turning point for the franchise. If he can give Pat a top fifteen defense over the next few years then I have no doubt that we can win the whole thing.

Those are the best coordinators in the league. Please tell me more about how you need fresh blood as a defensive coordinator to be successful.

He doesn't know shit about football.

Are you serious? Lol

Ford will have trade value. The "team has no leverage" nonsense is just that. Nonsense.

By that measure, Chiefs had no leverage with Alex Smith. Leverage is created by more than one team being interested. If Chiefs put non-exclusive tag on Ford, more than 1 team will be interested.

I wouldn't trade him unless you're getting a high 2 at minimum. The league is starved for pass rushers and not many are hitting the market.

There are 11 guys on either side of the ball, playing to stop the other team from doing something...

And if one gets fired for having a poor defense what happens? Will they get another job in the league?

They're getting a 2 and more or a player for player swap at least. I think Spag is going to have a lot of interest in getting Jason Pierre-Paul back somehow if it would be feasible.